The U.S. Postal Service is sending volunteers dressed in sandwich boards to the streets of Denver to advertise its 200 job vacancies. A Colorado senior-living company is handing out one-time grants to help employees with financial hurdles, such as car repairs, to ensure they make it to work. And the state’s largest grocery chain not only added a tuition reimbursement program to its benefit package in May, it upped its 401(k) match to boot.
Faced with a tight labor pool, employers are making bold moves to attract and keep workers.
“The best thing you can do is retain your existing employees,” local restaurateur Josh Wolkon said. “It’s hard to find people, so you have to hang on to the good ones you have.”
Colorado has entered a stretch of full employment unmatched since the dot-com boom two decades ago, one expected to boost wages but also create stress fractures in the economy.
Slow service at some restaurants, delayed surgeries at hospitals and higher home prices are just a few consequences wrought by a lack of available workers. But after stagnating for years, wage gains are finally outpacing inflation, benefit packages are improving and more on-the-spot job offers are being made.
“We are in a seller’s market for employees,” said Ryan Gedney, a senior labor economist with the state. “It is a true labor shortage, in a lot of areas.”
In May, Colorado’s unemployment rate was 3 percent or lower for the 19th consecutive month, surpassing the prior record of an 18-month run from October 1999 to March 2001.
May’s unemployment rate of 2.8 percent represents 85,095 people actively looking for work out of a labor force of 3.06 million. In October 2010, more than 243,000 unemployed people were actively looking.
Forecasts, including one in December from the University of Colorado Boulder, have warned that worker shortages could curtail job gains and limit overall growth in the state.
But after taking a breather following the crash in oil prices, job growth in Colorado, aided by federal tax cuts, has accelerated again, not slowed. The state is on track to add 70,000 new jobs this year, despite low unemployment, Gedney said.
Colorado employers appear to be relying heavily on people moving into the state to fill openings. But as unemployment rates drop across the country, that continued flow of workers isn’t guaranteed.
“We are in a really tight labor market right now across the country. Companies are fighting tooth and nail trying to attract and retain talented employees,” said Andrew Challenger, a vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago.
Giving part-time workers full-time jobs, training workers in new skills and engaging people once considered unemployable are other ways employers are coping with shortages.
After last decade’s recession, there were six unemployed workers for every job opening. Now, the ratio is about 1 to 1 and in states like Colorado, there are more open positions than people looking, Gedney said.
Nor is losing a job as dire as it used to be. About 40 percent of unemployed workers in Colorado find a job within a month. Another 25 percent find one within 15 weeks.
“We are seeing a pattern of increased job openings being posted and a decrease of traffic through the workforce centers,” said Tony Anderson, director of Denver Workforce Services.
It takes more time to fill the jobs that get posted, if they get filled. Job seekers coming into centers often are homeless, have a prison record or they struggle with a lack of day care or transportation that limit the jobs they can take, Anderson said.
Employers seem more willing to accept applicants that they might have passed on before, he said.
But not every Colorado job seeker is waltzing into an HR office and landing a job. Vala Gomez of Denver said she was unemployed for six weeks dating back to June despite interviewing for 10 openings over that time.
“I’ve been on the hunt, looking every day,” the 46-year-old said. “I’d go in knowing I’m qualified for the work, and somehow I don’t get the job.”
Gomez was out of the workforce for 10 years because of a back injury that left her with chronic pain. But on Thursday, she accepted a position at Rocky Mountain Offender Management Systems. On Friday, she visited the Denver Workforce Center on Federal Boulevard to print off her new-hire paperwork.
“I enjoy helping people in any aspect,” Gomez said of her new job. “I feel like everybody needs help sometimes.”
CareerCast, which tracks employment trends, has come up with a list of the “toughest jobs to fill” that highlights where employers in Colorado and other states face the greatest challenges.
A majority of the jobs are in health care, where an aging population is driving increased demand for home-health aides, medical service managers, nurses, personal care aides and physical therapists, said Kyle Kensing, online content editor at the San Diego firm.
The tech sector, despite high pay, still can’t find enough qualified workers. Application software developers and information security analysts in particular remain in short supply.
An aging population also is causing a wave of retirement in construction and transportation, fields that young adults have largely avoided.
“Denver is an attractive place for a job seeker where there are a lot of jobs to be had,” Challenger said. “There just aren’t enough people to fill those jobs.”
The Denver Post looked at how the labor shortages are playing out in key sectors of the economy.
Health care
In the ever-evolving health care industry, nurses are being relied on more each day. But health systems are struggling to hire enough nurses to keep up with demand; Colorado is one of 16 states projected to have a shortage of nurses by 2025.
As a result, health care providers are turning to social media, large bonuses and other states to recruit nurses.
With 10 hospitals in Colorado and two more under construction, hiring nurses is “a constant demand” for UCHealth, said Kathy Howell, chief nursing executive for the provider and chief nursing officer for University of Colorado Hospital.
UCHealth has 250 openings for registered nurses, plus another 134 nursing jobs it will hire for the hospitals under construction.
The provider is reaching out to potential employees via Facebook and hosting virtual job fairs that give nurses the opportunity to speak with a recruiter.
“We try to meet people where they’re at,” Howell said.
The provider has also turned to other states because there aren’t enough nurses in Colorado to meet demand, she said.
Colorado is expected to be short 12,900 nurses in seven years, making it one of three states that will experience the largest shortfalls. North Carolina also will need 12,900 more nurses, while Arizona will need 26,100, according to a report by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
The health systems say the nursing shortage hasn’t affected the quality of care they provide, partly because they are able to fill the gap by having employees work overtime and using floating nurses.
UCHealth also offers signing bonuses that can reach $5,000 for acute-care nurses and $10,000 for operating-room nurses.
Signing bonuses are just the start. Health systems also are having to invest in training to teach new graduates to work in specialized areas.
The training can sometimes cost up to $30,000 per person, said Erica Rossitto, chief nursing executive at HealthOne.
“Once we get these folks, we don’t want to lose them,” added Suzanne Kelley, vice president of human resources for HealthOne. “They want some sort of career path where they can continue to grow within our organization.”
Over the past year, Christian Living Communities, a senior living company, has sought to retain employees with raises, lower health insurance costs and a “critical needs fund” to help workers with emergency costs.
In January, Christian Living budgeted $820,000 that can be used toward raises for 66 percent of its roughly 650 employees in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois. The nonprofit, based in Greenwood Village, also raised annual cost-of-living increases from 2.5 percent to 3 percent for all employees.
“We’ve been working on our wages, but typically in nursing homes the (certified nursing assistant) wage is difficult to make a living in this market,” said Terry Rogers, president and chief executive officer.
Restaurants
The restaurant industry is no stranger to employee churn or trying to establish a worker pipeline. The Colorado Restaurant Association’s ProStart program has been teaching high school kids cooking and management skills for two decades. It worked with nearly 900 students last year, association spokeswoman Carolyn Livingston said.
But it’s not enough to keep up with demand. In 2017, restaurants were a $12 billion industry in Colorado, $4 billion more in than in 2010. It accounts for 280,000 jobs, Livingston said, more than 9 percent of all jobs in the state.
CRA helped bring the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Ready program to Colorado this summer. The pilot program, launched in Fort Collins in partnership with nonprofit the Matthews House, focuses on training at-risk young people between the ages of 16 and 24 to work in a kitchen. It launched this month.
Last year, Denver’s Emily Griffith Technical College launched a free four-week industry academy, called Culinary Quick Start.
Josh Wolkon, co-owner of Secret Sauce Food & Beverage, the Denver restaurant group that operates Vesta, Ace Eat Serve and two Steuben’s locations, said the labor situation is as competitive as he has seen in his 21 years in the businesses. Staff poaching is at an all-time high, he said, particularly with out-of-state companies coming to Colorado.
That said, he counted just six openings last week among the 300 or so jobs within his company. The key has been a commitment to making Secret Sauce somewhere employees want to stay, with subsidized gym memberships, clear paths to promotions and raises and other employee-friendly programs.
“Just the cost of the turnover is immense. You’re much better off making sure you do everything possible to make sure you hang on to your good people,” Wolkon said. “So we have always worked really hard to make our business attractive to employees.”
Steven Cox has been the sous chef at Vesta for nine years after coming to the restaurant as an intern while studying at Johnson & Wales University. He’s part of a back-of-house staff that has an average tenure of three-and-a-half years. Cox said he has never been tempted to leave Vesta for another restaurant because it has a strong, familial culture, steady leadership and business.
“Especially, within hospitality, everyone talks,” he said. “Everyone knows everyone and hears about what it’s like to work for our company.”
Competition for workers is helping to drive two trends in the food and beverage industry, according to the CRA’s Livingston: increasing reliance on technology and slower expansion. Highlighted by companies such as Birdcall, the soon-to-be three-location chicken sandwich shop where customers place all orders via automated kiosks, Livingston said more business owners are looking toward software and hardware to decrease their reliance on service workers.
“And people are putting on hold any expansion plans they may have,” Livingston said. “They may find an amazing location. But if they can’t find people to work there then they are going to rethink that.”
Retail
Whatever the impacts of e-commerce on American retailers, that industry too is facing strong demand for workers.
Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation, said 736,000 retail jobs opened up across the country in May It was the most openings in any May over at least the last 10 years, Kleinhenz said.
One retailer that has been doing a lot of hiring in the Denver area over the last two years is King Soopers. The Kroger subsidiary hired 225 people at its Arvada store that opened May 9. In 2017, it hired more than 430 employees at new locations in Castle Rock and the Stapleton neighborhood, company officials said. All told, the chain employs around 23,000 people in Colorado.
When it comes to attracting employees, King Soopers internal data show the best resource is recommendations from people who already work or used to work for the company, spokesman Adam Williamson said.
This year, King Soopers made two changes dedicated to supporting workers. Reinvesting the money it gained from the GOP tax reform bill, King Soopers raised its employee 401(k) match from 4 percent to 5 percent on June 1, Williamson said. In May it also launched its “Feed Your Future” program. Akin to the education benefit Walmart announced this spring but with defined contribution totals, Feed Your Future offers employees up to $3,500 per year in tuition reimbursement while they are working for King Soopers, maxing out at $21,000 over the course of their career.
Construction
If Denver-based Electrical Contractors Inc. could find more electricians, it could wire more homes and apartments.
More robust residential construction along the Front Range, in turn, could ease the pressure on home prices and rents, a key area where labor shortages have pinched consumer finances.
“The lack of labor means we are very selective about the jobs we take and the companies we work with,” said David Sherbondy, executive vice president with the Denver-based contractor.
Unable to find the experienced workers it needs, ECI, like many firms in the skilled trades, has worked hard to build from scratch.
About 75 out of the company’s 100 employees are apprentices training under experienced electricians. The goal is to give them enough experience to get them licensed, and hopefully retain them, Sherbondy said.
The home construction industry has created the Colorado Homebuilding Academy, where young adults are informed of careers in the skilled trades that don’t require a college degree but pay well.
Colorado’s construction sector topped out at around 170,000 workers during the housing boom in 2007. It fell to 105,000 by 2011, and then ramped up again with a vengeance.
“We have been averaging 6 to 7 percent growth on an annual basis since 2011,” said Michael Gifford, president and CEO of the Associated General Contractors of Colorado.
The downturn was so severe construction workers found other careers or retired. When construction made a comeback, enough skilled workers weren’t available to keep up with demand.
Gifford said the industry tried to recruit workers from states with higher unemployment. For a variety of reasons, including higher living costs here, those efforts didn’t pan out.
Government
It’s not just the private sector that is struggling to fill job vacancies. The U.S. Postal Service also is short more than 200 letter carriers in the Denver area and about 500 positions along the Front Range.
With the holiday shopping season a few months away, USPS plans to increase its hiring efforts in August by sending half a million postcards advertising its job openings to residents in the Denver area.
“We’re walking the streets — literally,” said David Rupert, a USPS spokesperson for Colorado. “We are going to reach every home in the Denver area.”
Devin Granbery, city manager for Sheridan, said the city has struggled to recruit police officers, partly because the career has become less appealing in recent years. The city’s police department is 10 percent to 15 percent short from a full staff of about 35 people.
“We’re seeing much smaller candidate pools,” he said. “We’re seeing competition from other industries and from the private sector.”
Granbery said it’s difficult for Sheridan to compete with larger markets when it comes to salaries, so it focuses on having a rich health insurance and retirement benefits for officers. Salaries for the city’s police officers range from $58,000 to $80,000.
The Regional Transportation District has struggled to find drivers and other key employees.
“It has been a challenge finding operators and mechanics for the past couple of years,” said spokesman Scott Reed.
RTD has plastered help-wanted ads on its buses and trains, on its digital banners and on social media. A new labor agreement that boosts pay for existing workers by 8 percent and new workers by 12 percent seems to be helping.
Reed said he is noticing larger crowds in orientation programs. But new workers often are assigned the late-night shifts and routes that more seniors drivers don’t want, which can make retention hard.
The driver shortage is a problem for industry as well.
Stricter regulations, tighter insurance requirements and a disinterested younger population have contributed to the shortages. Andy Allen, market leader for ProDrivers in Colorado, which provides drivers to firms in need of operators, says the shortage impacts his business.
“Everyday we are letting down clients because we can’t find enough drivers.”
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